Saturday, September 10, 2011

British Big Brother Time

I had thought that since Britain's Channel 4 dropped the franchise last year there would be no 'Big Brother UK' anymore. Shows how much I know (and I know EVERYTHING).

For anyone who is as serious an anglophile as I am, 'Big Brother' is the sweetest of guilty pleasures.

If you are unfamiliar with the concept, 14 unknown people, chosen from among thousands of applicants, are stuffed into a house where their behaviors and interactions are filmed 24/7. This year will be the 13th cycle of the popular concept.

Each week people will be nominated for eviction by their cast mates and it's left to the public to vote who stays and who goes. This is the opposite of the American version where the contestants vote out each other. Their are no 'alliances' formed in the UK version of BB and that makes it a TOTALLY different program.

In Britain, the tabloids follow the show very closely as do millions of British viewers. Some contestants are using this show to jump start careers in the entertainment industry. Past contestants have done pretty well for themselves in their post BB lives because of the fame they first found in the BB House.

The British public loves to see the rise and fall of it's celebrities. Ask any Brit to name five former or current BB cast mates from the UK show and I will bet they can do that off the top of their heads even if they don't watch the show. That is how ingrained the program has become in British pop culture.

Oh, I forgot to tell you, they are locked in with Pamela Anderson. How bizarre would it be to wake up and see her walking around the house in her pj pants?